Shops On West Street Sold, Former Old Red Lion Still Abandoned?

[kaaalie 0]

Edit: After another poster pointed out something and I did a little more looking, I think the sale was just the shops, the pub may still be abandoned. 

 

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I was doing some research last night and found that the abandoned shops at the bottom of West Street, on the corner of Holly Street, were sold in November. Some people here might be interested, as this is the building the Old Red Lion pub used to be in.

 

Over the past decade the building has housed a panini shop, a tattoo parlour, sunbeds, a beauty parlour and a couple of hairdressers, but now it's entirely vacated I'm wondering if it might be knocked down, or if it'll be brought back into use in some way? Looking in the upstairs windows, on one side at least it's been cleared out (although one of the top windows looks broken).

 

I know a lot of people thought the Old Red Lion was in a prime location, it's on a corner, and fortunately I think the lot is too small to become flats, so might it become a bar again to compliment the Slug and Lettuce and Broncos next door?

 

This is what I'm talking about, everything from the corner right along to and including the "gents salon".

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by kaaalie

[Andy C 85]

thats interesting. There was actually a door between the Old Red Lion and what is now the Slug and Lettuce as they operated as twin venues. I wonder if that has been bricked up then?

[kaaalie 0]

33 minutes ago, Andy C said:

thats interesting. There was actually a door between the Old Red Lion and what is now the Slug and Lettuce as they operated as twin venues. I wonder if that has been bricked up then?

It must have been a while back, the building directly next door to Slug and Lettuce (when it was Reflex) was Dapper Chaps last, which moved to Division Street.

 

As I understand it from the estate agent listing I found, it was last separated into four sections, with the middle door (boarded up above) being a central staircase with access to the upstairs businesses on both sides, and the downstairs businesses having their own doors (the glass-panelled doors). I might be wrong!

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by kaaalie

[Bilge 34]

I hope these buildings are retained and improved like in HotC2.

 

I'd love to see the pub sensitively restored. It's got a bit of history behind it as it's opposite the city hall stage door and performers often popped in for refreshment (Pete Townshend for example). It would be great if there was something like a 'proper pub' in this location rather than chains. 

[Andy C 85]

3 hours ago, kaaalie said:

It must have been a while back, the building directly next door to Slug and Lettuce (when it was Reflex) was Dapper Chaps last, which moved to Division Street.

 

As I understand it from the estate agent listing I found, it was last separated into four sections, with the middle door (boarded up above) being a central staircase with access to the upstairs businesses on both sides, and the downstairs businesses having their own doors (the glass-panelled doors). I might be wrong!

 

The shop units on West Street have always as far as I can remember been seperate (although my memory only goes so far back of course so it is quite possible they may have been created by splitting a bit of the pub off at some point in the past).

 

My memory is the Red Lion downstairs being a traditional pub serving handpulled Tetley Bitter and a front door on Holly Street with Edwards bar upstairs being a modern party bar accessed from the door behind the City Hall, however I used to buy a pint of real ale in the Red Lion and walk with it up the steps and through the connecting door into Edwards, which had a more fun atmosphere but no decent beer!

 

When the bar upstairs became Reflex 80s bar the Red Lion became Flares 70s bar and only serving bottles/spirits and access was just via the connecting door/stairs, the old pub front door becoming an emergency exit only. The Flares room was short lived and it became a function room, eventually getting closed off out of use I think. I've not been in since it became the Slug and Lettuce but I'm not aware of the Old Red Lion being used, except perhaps as a staff area?

Edited April 9, 2020 by Andy C

[kaaalie 0]

6 hours ago, Andy C said:

The shop units on West Street have always as far as I can remember been seperate (although my memory only goes so far back of course so it is quite possible they may have been created by splitting a bit of the pub off at some point in the past).

 

My memory is the Red Lion downstairs being a traditional pub serving handpulled Tetley Bitter and a front door on Holly Street with Edwards bar upstairs being a modern party bar accessed from the door behind the City Hall, however I used to buy a pint of real ale in the Red Lion and walk with it up the steps and through the connecting door into Edwards, which had a more fun atmosphere but no decent beer!

 

When the bar upstairs became Reflex 80s bar the Red Lion became Flares 70s bar and only serving bottles/spirits and access was just via the connecting door/stairs, the old pub front door becoming an emergency exit only. The Flares room was short lived and it became a function room, eventually getting closed off out of use I think. I've not been in since it became the Slug and Lettuce but I'm not aware of the Old Red Lion being used, except perhaps as a staff area?

Are the panini shop and tattoo parlour here not using the same space? 

 

 

[kaaalie 0]

Oh actually, you're right! I didn't think it was possible to run those sorts of businesses in a super tiny space but the tattoo parlour has a Facebook page and clearly this photo shows they did:

 

 

So after all of this, perhaps the sale was just the shops and maybe the Old Red Lion does still belong to Stonegate Pub Company? Still a mystery... 

Edited April 9, 2020 by kaaalie

[beefface 10]

9 hours ago, Bilge said:

I hope these buildings are retained and improved like in HotC2.

 

I'd love to see the pub sensitively restored. It's got a bit of history behind it as it's opposite the city hall stage door and performers often popped in for refreshment (Pete Townshend for example). It would be great if there was something like a 'proper pub' in this location rather than chains. 

Was in there that night, I went to the little hatch bar to get a round, Pete came up behind passed me a twenty and asked me to get him a pint of Stones, a double scotch and a pint of lager for Bob Pridden his lighting engineer and “get yours and yer mates one as well!”, I made a point of hesitating before saying “oh, go on then”. He signed my tee shirt with ‘Pete Townshend, join the <removed> army” Me mum washed it next day!!

Edited April 9, 2020 by beefface

[kaaalie 0]

I did a little more research, for those interested, and it seems the Old Red Lion space did indeed become Tropicana, then Boom, based on a post by a manager on this forum in 2005. If everyone else is right it then became Flares.

 

Once it's open again I might just go and nosey in The Slug and Lettuce and see if there's any indication they turned it into a kitchen or something.

[Bilge 34]

20 hours ago, beefface said:

Was in there that night, I went to the little hatch bar to get a round, Pete came up behind passed me a twenty and asked me to get him a pint of Stones, a double scotch and a pint of lager for Bob Pridden his lighting engineer and “get yours and yer mates one as well!”, I made a point of hesitating before saying “oh, go on then”. He signed my tee shirt with ‘Pete Townshend, join the <removed> army” Me mum washed it next day!!

Thanks! That's a great bit of detail.

[WarPig 72]

I remember when the tattoo sop was a sandwich shop, back in 1988 when I left school and started work in a business in the same block of buildings. I was the office buttie boy, back and forth with everyones orders. On Friday afternoons the ladies in the shop would give me all the buns that would otherwise be going to waste over the weekend.

Edited April 11, 2020 by WarPig

[Jim Hardie 517]

1 hour ago, WarPig said:

I remember when the tattoo sop was a sandwich shop, back in 1988 when I left school and started work in a business in the same block of buildings. I was the office buttie boy, back and forth with everyones orders. On Friday afternoons the ladies in the shop would give me all the buns that would otherwise be going to waste over the weekend.

I used that sandwich shop most days around that time. The barber's shop next door was Nigel Coulson which I also used when I had hair. I would be in the Red Lion every Friday straight after work.